A Chula Vista elementary school teacher pleaded not guilty Friday to 20 felony charges, including child molestation involving one of his former students and possession of child pornography.
If convicted of all of the charges, John Raymond Kinloch, 41, could be sentenced to 43 years and six months in prison.
Kinloch, who is on leave from his teaching job at Wolf Canyon Elementary School, was arrested on Nov. 30 on suspicion of child pornography.
After that, a former student of his at Feaster Charter School, where Kinloch taught from 2000 to 2009, came forward and said he was molested by the teacher, authorities said. He was re-arrested Wednesday after the allegations were investigated.
Of the 20 charges filed Friday in Chula Vista Superior Court, 19 are related to the male student, who was 8 or 9 years old when the illegal conduct started, said Deputy District Attorney Enrique Camarena.
“The defendant had a close relationship with him, inside and outside of the school,” the prosecutor said outside the courtroom.
Judge Katherine Bacal set Kinloch’s bail at $1.9 million.
His defense attorney, Dan Greene, had asked for lower bail, saying Kinloch had no previous criminal record, had strong ties to the community and was not a flight risk.
“This is very overwhelming,” for his client, Greene said outside of court.
“He knows this is extremely serious,” Greene said. “He’s prepared to go through the process, which is what our society is about.”
San Diego police said Kinloch was investigated by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which is made up of federal, state and local law enforcement, for allegedly posing online as a girl and persuading young boys to send him pictures of themselves naked.
No students from Chula Vista elementary schools were involved in the pornography, authorities said.
Officials of the Chula Vista Elementary School District are examining how Kinloch passed a federal background check to become a teacher because he was linked to a child pornography case in the 1990s when he was a graduate student at San Diego State University.
The San Diego Reader published a story in June 1998 that said Kinloch testified in England at the criminal trial of another college student accused of disseminating child pornography.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego offered immunity to Kinloch in exchange for his testimony, the Reader reported.
Because Kinloch was never charged in the case, his name would not turn up in a federal background check.
This article originally appeared on utsandiego
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